The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Spathiphyllum plant, botanically known as Spathiphyllum hybrid, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Junior.
The new cultivar is a product of a planned and controlled breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Nootdorp, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to create new compact Spathiphyllum cultivars with dark green foliage, freely flowering habit and spathes held above the foliage.
The new cultivar originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in June, 1998 of the Spathiphyllum hybrid cultivar Jetty, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,957, as the female or seed parent and a proprietary Spathiphyllum hybrid selection identified as code number 117, not patented, as the male or pollen parent. The cultivar Junior was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Nootdorp, The Netherlands, in May, 1999.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar by tissue culture since May, 1999, in a laboratory in Nootdorp, The Netherlands, has shown that the unique features of this new Spathiphyllum plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual propagation.